How wearing the 'world’s ghastliest shirt' can make you 'invisible' to AI cameras
The rise of digital and AI-powered surveillance tools across the world has led people to find ways of staying hidden, and it turns out that wearing the 'world's ghastliest shirt' renders you functionally invisible to tech-based detection systems.
Referred to by its creators as 'Digital Camouflage', this gaudy short-sleeved shirt might stick out like a sore thumb to human eyes but leaves you completely undetected to AI scanning systems.
It is specifically designed to counter the widely used 'You Only Look Once' (YOLO) object detection algorithm, used most controversially by Flock cameras that are popping up in the thousands across the United States, and causing significant division between citizens and city officials in some areas.
Wearing this shirt will prevent the camera from tracking you with its AI systems, and while that won't work as a complete deterrent against police activity or more sophisticated tracking technologies, it could help you stay under the radar as you go about your daily life.
How does the shirt keep you invisible?
According to the shirt's official website, it works by deceiving the YOLO algorithm system "by combining strategies of distraction and confidence suppression.
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"First, the pattern draws the algorithm's attention to itself," the description explains. "Then, it minimizes the algorithm's confidence score for the object it overlays. In this way, digital camouflage diverts the algorithm's attention from the host, rendering the host invisible to the machine's eye."
As shared by the Daily Mail, a YouTube video posted by the shirt's creator, Simon Weckert, demonstrates this in action.
While the cameras are actively tracking other people in the frame, following their bodies with green boxes that identify them, the individual wearing the Digital Camouflage shirt remains untouched as if they were simply never there.
Indicating why someone might want to buy this shirt and stay hidden from machines that track you on a daily basis, Weckert details:
"Computer vision and object recognition are rapidly evolving technologies, primarily used in public surveillance systems. Digital camouflage is a powerful tool that can help you reclaim your legally guaranteed right to privacy."
Can you buy the Digital Camouflage shirt?
Heading to Weckert's website allows you to see the various Digital Camouflage shirts that he has on offer, with prices ranging from $75 for the first iteration to $100 for updated 'Special Edition' shirts featuring a new pattern.
Each shirt reiterates that while it is capable of stopping YOLO-based surveillance systems from tracking you, it remains "a work of art and a statement, not a certified anonymity tool," so don't expect it cover everything.
The v1 features the signature green, pink, and orange colours with a Cuban collar shirt, whereas the v2.1 and v2.2 versions offer a shorter polo-style collar and a crew neck with a blue, black, light pink, and black design.
It's also not the only anti-surveillance clothing that Weckert sells too, as he has also mocked Palantir – one of the world's leading digital surveillance companies – with a twist on their new blue chore coat, featuring a 'NO' with the company's logo on the breast pocket.